Second chance
by Necromancer Raccoon
Summary: Naruto is killed by a strange assassin. But he doesn't stay dead. Someone brings him back, leaving only "Kirigakure" as a clue. No pairing. Undead,powerful Naruto.


This is an idea that came out of nowhere. I have my doubts about it, but managed to get this entire chapter down mostly at once. Read, review, flame if you want, but I need feedback. This takes place three years before canon starts.

The date was October 10th. Konohagakure sat as a glaring beacon against the black of the night. On any other day, the village would be almost as dark as the forests around it, but today was special. It was the day of the Kyuubi festival, celebrating the defeat of the demon lord at the hands of the Yondaime Hokage. Most people were enjoying the food and games, with the exception of the people planning the fireworks display, and even they were exchanging places every hour.

There was one person, though, who was detached from it all; a thirteen year old blonde boy, with dark blue eyes, and three whisker marks on each cheek. He was garbed in a dirty white t-shirt and tattered jeans. His shoes had worn away to the point where they had fallen apart when he tried putting them on. That was what brought him to that particular alley. It was the closest one with a dumpster.

Naruto Uzumaki turned away from the dumpster, stalking away with his hands in his pockets. Those had been his only shoes. It really didn't matter to him, though, since he could bother the Hokage to get him some new ones.

A drunken shout of "It's the demon brat," drew his attention up to the alley's entrance, where a group of about fifteen people was gathered. The teen winced, before turning and breaking into a sprint.

"Shit. Well, I'd have to run eventually," Naruto reasoned. He was surprised, though, that the village's biggest holiday required a long winded chase after him, specifically, but forced that thought out of his head. It wasn't important right now, and he really couldn't bring himself to care. It was good exercise, and mildly entertaining when the villagers started sobering up, so he went with it.

As Naruto reached the end of the alleyway, he paused, freeing his hands, before he took off again. He could outrun the people when they were drunk, but he would need his hands to keep enough distance between him and his pursuers. He turned, halfway facing the stumbling mob. His lips curled into a fox-like smirk, before he was gone.

Naruto's vision blurred as he ran, like paint flowing off a soaked canvas. The colors mixed and shapes merged, except for what he was focusing on. That was crystal clear, even as he mounted the trashcan with one foot, launching up and grabbing a fire escape by the bottom rung. The moment his grip tightened, he began ascending the ladder two rungs at a time. The blonde stepped onto the roof, breaking into a run as soon as he was on horizontal ground again, and flinging himself across to the next building once he reached the edge.

Now that he had left the ground, it would only be a matter of time before the shinobi entered the running. A strange ache faded into feeling, slightly above his stomach, as that thought crossed his mind. Something new was going to happen. Something huge. He leapt across another gap, his pace stuttering when a shock of pain ran through his stomach. He was moving again in a few seconds, though, so there was no loss.

Two buildings later, the first ninja appeared. Just one. A strange one, too. All Naruto could see was a lopsided grin in the black hood.

'It's about time', Naruto thought. Moments later, the figure was gone.

"What the hell?" he shouted, his eyes widening in shock. Once he thought about it, though, it wasn't that shocking. There was a B-rank genjutsu that could make someone invisible for as long as the technique was active. Anyone of Chunin level could use it.

The blonde turned back to face his path, his cool returning. But the ache wouldn't stop. As he was passing the roof exit of a convenience store, a black clad fist struck out from the night sky. Naruto was halted by the impact, before the air was knocked out of him by a brutal knee to the stomach. A palm strike to the chest sent him sprawling to the floor, where he lay gasping for breath.

Through his hazy vision, he could just make out a jagged, lopsided grin under a pair of faintly glowing, glacier blue eyes.

"I've been looking for you, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko…" the shadow hissed. Judging by the depth of its voice, Naruto had to guess it was a man. The shadow's arm rose, a long blade clutched in his fist. The newly revealed Jinchuuriki rolled to the side as the hand descended, the knife embedded up to the handle in the concrete.

As he skittered to his feet, Naruto looked over the man. He wore a black cloak that concealed his body, and black gloves. The weight in Naruto's stomach intensified. Every one of the man's movements was much too fast to follow.

A second knife slid out of the man's sleeve, glinting in the moonlight as it was thrown. The blonde's reflexes saved his life, though the blade cut a long gash across the left half of his face, from above his eyebrow to the hinge of his jaw.

The pain was almost blinding in intensity, almost like that portion of his face had been set on fire. But what truly shocked him was that the wound didn't heal like it normally would have.

In response to the expression on Naruto's face, the man jerked his weapon from the ground.

"Keh...Like it? These knives are made specifically to hunt Jinchuurikis. Feel honored, you're the first I got to test them on."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto screamed. He had been listening to this psychopath enough to know one thing; this man had answers, and that was all the blonde needed to know.

If it was possible, the man's grin got even wider.

"No one told you? Ah, Konoha could learn something from Kumo…" the dark form replied gleefully. "Ah, well… The demon that attacked thirteen years ago, you know that much, right?" At the nod, he continued. "Well, the Yondaime Hokage sealed the demon, the _king_ of demons, if I remember right, into a newborn child. You." He pointed the knife at Naruto. "The thing about these blades is, they don't do anything to you but cut you… or do you not care what the fox does?"

Naruto ground his teeth, glaring at the man.

"I really don't give a shit," the blonde Jinchuuriki growled. He knew what was going on. This man had taken it upon himself to rid the world of the Kyuubi. It would be noble, if it didn't mean killing a child.

"Hmph… then just make my job easier…" The man's eyes flashed briefly, before he was a foot away from Naruto. "And hold still!"

He drove his knee into Naruto's stomach with bone-dusting force, grabbing the boy's throat with the next move and swinging the teenager over his head. Naruto was slammed down hard enough to shatter the concrete. The blade in the man's hand was thrust directly into Naruto's stomach, perfectly in the center of the spiraling seal that had appeared there. Before both of their eyes, the seal began flaking away, gone in the next minute.

"It's shameful, really, that this is the most humane thing I've done in my life," the man muttered almost… regretfully? A third blade appeared in his hand. Before Naruto could ask what he meant, the knife was thrust into his heart.

The body was found the next morning, by the store's owner as she went to feed the birds. She carried Naruto's corpse to the Hokage's office, where, blind with grief, Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered the entirety of his personal guard to search the village and every nearby town for evidence of the culprit. There wasn't a trail left to follow. Naruto was buried that night, under his full name; Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze.

October 13th

The village was deathly still. Almost like someone had pulled the power chord to the entire village. It had been raining non-stop for almost three days, the clouds blocking any light from the moon or stars.

A shadow, darker than the night itself, strode through the cemetery, Gravel crunched under its boots as it made its way to the newest grave. A mausoleum, actually, but that wasn't important.

The figure paused at the door. A thin, gray mud had accumulated from the stone dust had washed onto the door the building had been made in a hurry. If the figure could cry, it would have shed a tear. The boy got better treatment dead.

But that was the plan.

A leather clad hand wiped the muck from the engraving on the door. It read "Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto".

The door creaked open under the shadow's touch, and it entered calmly. A few steps in, the figure paused, standing over the body of a thirteen year old blonde boy. The marks had faded from the child's face before he was buried.

"…Starting over can be hard… But…"

A hand was raised, bathed in an ethereal red glow, before it descended on the boy. The hand stopped on the forehead, trailing over the eyes, then the throat, before lifting and running across Naruto's face, from one ear to the other.

"…You get to have an advantage…"

The light glowed even brighter as the hand combed over the child's sun-kissed hair, turning its path white. The hand was pulled away, and a single word cut the brittle silence.

"…Kirigakure…"

Three days later, the body of one Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto was reported stolen.

So, how is it? I'm open to any pairings, but a lot of them would need even bigger changes to the storyline. I already have the events of the next few chapters figured out, and a pretty good idea of where to go from there.


End file.
